


Carpel

by Miss14



Category: All Elite Wrestling, Being The Elite (Web Series), Professional Wrestling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:21:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22410922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss14/pseuds/Miss14
Summary: There's nothing quite as sweet as citrus fruit shared between new friends.
Relationships: Orange Cassidy/Kris Statlander
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	Carpel

**Author's Note:**

> Orange and Kris are so cute together on BTE! I just had to write something. This story is based off a Tumblr post with this quote:  
> “She peels an orange, separates it in perfect halves, and gives one of them to me. If I could wear it like a friendship bracelet, I would. Instead I swallow it section by section and tell myself it means even more this way. To chew and to swallow in silence with her. To taste the same thing in the same moment.”  
> (Edit: Found out it's from a book called We Are Okay by Nina Lacour.)
> 
> So yeah, it's Orange and Kris sharing an orange. Enjoy!

“This is what again?” Kris grips a perfectly shaped orange between her hands, thumbs caressing the rind as she offers it a tentative squeeze. Orange watches her closely, a small, amused smile spreading over his normally expressionless face as he watches Kris bring the fruit up to her nose for closer inspection.  
“An orange.” He offers quietly, still preoccupied observing how intensely Kris examines the small fruit in her grasp. As soon as the words leave his mouth her gaze meets his, her face lit up with a huge grin.  
“Orange! Like you!” Heat cascades across Orange’s cheeks as Kris reaches out and lays a finger to the end of his nose, her fingertip lightly brushing the tip before she pulls it away.  
“Yeah. Like me.” Post-boop, Kris gazes at Orange’s face without saying a word, ogling him for so long he starts to feel uncomfortable. “What?” He asks finally, releasing an awkward titter as she continues to stare him down.  
“Your barriers!”  
“Oh. Right.” Kris has mentioned to him several times that when they’re talking, she’d like for him to take off his sunglasses, or barriers as she calls them. He doesn’t do such a thing all that often, but for her? He’ll gladly take them off if that makes her more comfortable. Orange removes his shades and tucks them away in his back pocket, Kris flashing him a grateful smile as he does.  
“Better.” Satisfied, Kris shifts her attention back to the piece of fruit, pressing her thumbs against the rind so hard her fingernails begin piercing the skin. “No, not like that.” Orange presses his hand to her wrist to stop her, their eyes meeting as she flashes him a confused glance. “Softly.” Kris cocks her head to the side and stares at him, still perplexed as to what he’s trying to express to her. “Be gentle with it.”  
“What is gentle?” Kris wonders, her eyes darting between Orange’s face and the hand he’s got rested upon her wrist.  
“Like...not hard. Easy.”  
“Easy?”  
“Here. I’ll show you.” Orange slides his fingers over the back of her hand and leads it away from the perfect little citrus fruit, guiding it closer to his chest. “This is hard.” Taking her hand in his, Orange offers it a strong squeeze, pressing firmly enough to demonstrate what he means. “This is soft.” He releases his grip and this time presses much more lightly, barely applying any pressure as he takes her hand into his and holds it there.  
“Oh. Let me try.” Kris keeps her gaze fixed on their laced hands, whispering gently as she secures Orange’s palm against her own. “Soft.” The grip she uses is anything but soft, Orange grimacing in agony as she clutches his hand with unbelievable pressure.  
“Nope...ow...that’s hard. Too hard.” Orange winces and yanks his hand away, shaking it several times to wave off the pain.  
“Oh.” Kris is confused as to why he’s removed his hand from hers and what that agitated look on his face means, so she offers him another nose boop to try and get things back on track. “Try again?” He flashes her a kind smile but he’s reluctant to let her make another attempt, his palm still throbbing as she stares him down, awaiting his approval.  
“Ok, but…not too hard. You know what? Squeeze my hand like you boop my nose. That’s what soft means. It means you barely touch.” Kris studies his face for a few moments before turning his hand over so his palm faces up, tenderly placing the tip of her finger to the pad of his thumb. Orange laughs softly, curling his fingers around her wrist to keep her hand close. “Good. But use your whole hand.”  
“Oh.” Kris unfurls her closed fingers and slowly glides them over Orange’s palm, stopping once her fingers are locked with his. This time she’s conscious to hold his hand much more carefully, only giving it the lightest of squeezes. “Soft?”  
“Soft.” Orange traces lazy circles over the back of her hand with his thumb. Just as Orange decides Kris’s hand feels at home held in his she pulls it away and turns her attention back to the orange she’s still holding.  
“You eat it?” Kris traces circles around the top of the fruit with the tip of her booping finger, studying the little dip where it was once connected to a tree.  
“Yeah.”  
“Like this?”  
“No, you have to peel it first. You only eat the inside.” Orange reaches into her hand and scoops up the orange, Kris watching warily as he digs his thumb into the skin.  
“Soft?”  
“It’s ok, we’re gonna peel it. You have to take the skin off to get to the fruit.” He peels away little sections of the rind and lets them fall on the floor, Kris watching intently as little by little the flesh is exposed.  
“That is what you look like inside?”  
Orange laughs harder than he intends to at her question, Kris frowning when he stops peeling away the skin to chuckle. “No. Close, but no.” This time it’s his turn to give her nose a soft boop. Experience has taught him it’s the quickest way to make her smile and damn, does he love it when she’s smiling. Kris rewards him with a sweet grin, touching the spot he just booped with two fingers.  
“Smells like you.” Orange shakes his head and laughs gently this time, watching Kris as she wipes a smudge of orange oil from the end of her nose. She reaches out to catch one of his discarded peels and analyzes it carefully, peeling some of the white skin away with her nail. “The orange and white meat, you eat this?”  
“No, it’s no good to eat. The inside is where it’s at.” Kris pulls the small portion of rind in half, a light mist of orange oil floating out as she rips it in two. “You can try.”’ Orange sets the half peeled citrus back inside her hand, Kris silent as she gives the exposed white skin covering the segments a thorough examination. “Here. I’ll show you.” He takes her hand once more, this time guiding her thumb underneath the orange’s skin to demonstrate. “Just use your thumb to push. Soft. Not hard. Softly. Only to the white part.”  
“Softly.” Kris repeats his instructions and lets Orange direct, following his lead as he shows her how to expose the finest part of the fruit. A tiny section of rind flies off and Kris lets out a laugh so cute Orange can’t help but smile like an idiot, the accomplished look on her face the most satisfying thing he’s seen in forever.  
“You try.” Orange can tell she’s focusing hard as she eases her thumb beneath the next part of the skin, working it below the surface and pausing before looking to him for confirmation. “Yeah. Now push.” He knows he should have been more careful with his choice of words, a light spray of juice spraying out of the fruit as Kris presses her thumb into the flesh. The shocked expression on her face is even cuter than the fulfilled one from seconds earlier, and it’s at that moment that Orange realizes he’s in much deeper than he imagined.  
“What is that?”  
“Juice.” Orange explains, using the sleeve of his worn denim jacket to wipe several droplets of orange juice from Kris’s hand.  
“Juice? Like you!” She lays another boop to the end of Orange’s nose, this time leaving it wet with juice. “This is where your drink comes from?”  
“Yep.”  
“How?”  
“You squeeze.”  
“But you said to be soft?” Orange can’t decide if Kris is more adorable when she smiles for him or when she’s confused like she is now, completely perplexed by Orange’s contradiction.  
“Yes, soft for peeling and eating. But to get the juice out you have to be hard. You get it?”  
“No.”  
“Keep peeling.” It takes Kris several minutes to work the rest of the rind off the little orange in her hand, but Orange doesn’t mind one bit. He’s content to stand with her quietly and watch her struggle to shed the skin off the thing, delighted by how gently she rolls the peeled fruit back and forth in her hand once she’s finished.  
“Now what?”  
“Now you open it.” Orange taps the top of the fruit with one slender digit, their fingers meeting as Kris mimics his action. “Use your thumbs.”  
“This is why yours is always so tired? Peeling oranges?”  
“Kinda.” Orange laughs once again and places her thumbs at opposite sides of the fruit, leading them apart slowly with just enough pressure to make the little fruit separate into two picture-perfect halves.  
“That’s it?” Kris holds the two immaculately split halves in her hands, staring at them.  
“That’s it. Now you eat it.”  
“Show me?”  
Kris pushes her hand closer and offers Orange one flawless half which he gladly accepts. “You pull apart the slices. See where they’re segmented?” Orange thumbs off a piece of his half and shows it to Kris before placing it in his mouth, Kris watching him chew for a moment before she attempts to repeat what he just did.  
“Lots of work.” She concludes, finding the process of peeling off a section for herself not as easy as Orange made it appear.  
“Yeah, but it’s worth it. Let me.” He pops off a segment with ease as she watches in absolute wonder. “See.” Orange waits what seems like an eternity for her to take the slice of fruit from his hand, Kris completely absorbed in contemplating where each section ends and begins as she studies her remaining half. “Here.” Kris’s eyes follow Orange’s hand as he brings the little section of citrusy goodness up towards her mouth, stopping just before her lips. At first, she pulls back ever so slightly and Orange begins to worry he may have made the wrong move. Thankfully and much to Orange’s relief, her hesitation only lasts for a few seconds. She nods and flashes him an understanding look as she leans closer, Orange waiting with the small section of fruit still held between his thumb and forefinger. He waits until she parts her lips to give him permission, ever so carefully placing the little segment of sweet fruit inside her mouth.  
“What do you think?” Orange asks as he watches her chew, popping off another segment for himself as she takes her time savoring that first piece.  
“It’s wet. And there’s all these little parts. Is that what your juice is like?”  
“Yeah.” Orange laughs softly, endlessly amused by her innocent observations about things she’s unfamiliar with. “You like it?”  
“How do you call it? Orange, but...what else?”  
“Sweet. I’d call it sweet.”  
“Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.” She repeats Orange’s word several times as she works at separating another section of fruit, this time doing a much better job.  
The pair stand together and eat the remainder of their orange halves in silence, the occasional soft chewing sound the only thing shared between them as they finish off the fruit segment by segment. A sudden sinking feeling hits Orange right in the gut once they’re finished. He’s disappointed when both of their halves are eaten because he knows that means they’ll soon be parting ways and whether he’s admitted it to himself or not, he values the time he’s been spending with Kris lately a great deal.  
“The orange fruit? This is your favorite thing?” Kris asks him, breaking the silence between the two.  
“One of my favorite things.” Orange places his hand underneath her chin and guides her face up, their eyes meeting. Immediately she smiles at him, Orange slowly tracing the shape of her chin with the pad of his thumb as he tries to memorize the way her face glows when she beams that way.  
“What’s another?” She asks softly, hands wringing together nervously as she offers Orange this question.  
“You.” He boops her nose one final time before fishing his sunglasses out of his pocket, leaving her with a nod as he replaces his shades and casually strolls away.


End file.
